Heritage Tourism
In 2004, I co-edited a volume titled Marketing Heritage: Archeology and the Consumption of the Past. That opened up a new research avenue on the intersection of archaeology and tourism that has evolved into a focus on heritage tourism, theory and practice.
Asked in 2000 for input on a then new endeavor: a heritage trail for visiting archaeological sites in Florida. The board for Trail of Lost Tribes was an interesting experience, written up in 2005 as “A New Route in Heritage Tourism on Florida's Southwest Coast” The SAA Archaeological Record. I used the concept of trail to re-examine the 19th-century paintings of David Roberts, published in 2007 as “Images of the Holy Land: The David Roberts Paintings as Artifacts of 1830s Palestine” Historical Archaeology. Theoretical considerations appeared as
“Appropriating the Past: Heritage, Tourism, and Archaeology in Israel” In Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts, edited by P.L. Kohl, M Kozelsky, and N. Ben-Yehuda. University of Chicago Press (2007)
“Archaeology in the Public Interest: Tourist Effects and Other Paradoxes that Come with Heritage Tourism.” In Ideologies in Archaeology, edited by Reinhard Bernbeck and Randall H. McGuire. University of Arizona Press (2011)
“Value and Values in Heritage Tourism from the Grand Tour to the Experience Economy” In Relevance and Application of Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Society, edited by Pei-Lin Yu, Chen Shen, George S. Smith. Routledge (2018).
“Heritage Tourism’s History: Past as Prologue for the Anthropocene” Heritage and Cultural Heritage Tourism: International Perspectives, edited by Pei-Lin Yu, Thanik Lertcharnrit and George S. Smith, pages 73-84. Springer (2023).
In 2013, a view of the argument appeared as “Visiting the Near East from the Grand Tour to Heritage Tourism" The Ancient Near East Today Volume 6 (September). And an essay in the 2021 Journal of Florida Studies: “On the Trail of Early 19th-century Freedom-Seeking People Across Gulf Coast Florida: Archaeological Clues to a Robust Heritage Hidden in Plain Sight" My definition of heritage tourism appears in Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology: Living Edition
The eastern Mediterranean and Florida continue to be the two main regions for my consideration of heritage tourism, focusing on tourism as a positive opportunity for raising consciousness and documenting climate change
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